“Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture” exhibition opened in June at the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the exhibition will be on view through June 2019.

In 1967, country artist Margie Singleton recorded a Top 40 country hit with her cover version of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.” A year later, Singleton asked songwriter Tom T. Hall, who had a knack for narrative and a keen eye for detail, to write her a similar tune.

Bill Haley and His Comets recorded the first rock ’n’ roll hit: “Crazy, Man, Crazy,” a now-forgotten piece of swing-based fluff that employed teen-oriented catchphrases of the day (“solid,” “crazy,” “gone”).